To make my long story very short, I had a buyer tell his agent the back door was unlocked so he went and ahead and started moving in. My seller drove by and found out and was fuming because the buyer was moving in it didn't fund and record that day (it didn't until the next day). Thing is the seller and I were both at the house the night before and secured it and locked all doors and windows. The icing on the cake was the buyer's rep was the President of the local Assoc. of Realtors.

YEP, el presidente! there's substantially more to this story that preceeds the above about how he did not represent his clients and nearly lost the house for them earlier in the transaction, but it would take a lot of typing and explanation.

I was so disgusted with this agent and cannot believe that we are stuck with him representing us agents for 3 years (as president-elect, president and past president).

We got sued over one of those.
Buyers moved in, but fell out of escrow before it closed. Bank said go out, change the locks, hire security and do not let the buyers back in. Two months later they closed on it.

Two years later WHAMO, you’ve been served.

Self-help. We knew it, the bank knew it and the bank ended up paying for it. The proper avenue would have been an eviction action, and not self-help.

Lesson learned

There was a gal in my office who was representing a buyer who (unbeknownst to her) had a big, very old tree chopped down at the house she was buying. Problem was this was an owner-occupied house and the owners hadn't approved this.

The gal had had her inspection which revealed that the roof needed to be replaced and I guess part of the reason was that the tree had been scratching on it. Well the sellers went ahead and replaced the roof. Ms. Buyer was all freaked out that in the few days until closing that mean old tree would just destroy her brand new roof.

So she hired a tree service to go out and trim it, and they wound up cutting the whole thing down. With no notice to the seller or either of the agents.

Isn't it amazing.
I have an REO property right now that is late closing because of an issue with the city. I found out the buyer intends to flip it immediately to another investor who bought the other half of this semi-detached which is also an REO.
Yesterday I got the approval from the city, so on my way to get the paperwork, I stopped at the house to remove the lockbox and key. The front door was wide open. I guess the 2nd buyer was in doing some work and left to get materials. I locked it up and after going to city hall, brought everything (including the key) to the settlement company.
Since no one's called about the missing key, I know it had to be the 2nd buyer. He looked at the property with an agent (not the selling agent on my deal) and I'm sure he got the code from that agent.
I waiting for the day someone falls through a hole in the floor or something and sues. I'll be very happy to sit on the witness and testify that they didn't have my permission or my client's to enter the property

She just called me again, and said "money was received by escrow, can I get the keys now" told her what part of "NO" you don't get. She replies "be flexible" I hang up! Where these people got their license Walmart or Kmart?

I had one last summer,where a investor had the property rehabbed and rented before we closed.I can see making sure the asset is secured, but a 15k rehab........lol

I have a combo box that stays on the home until the day after escrow closes. When a home goes active on MLS I have an electronic box on the home as well.

I now remove the electronic box as soon as it goes pending and give the selling agent the combo so s/he can get inspectors and appraisers in the property. This way only the selling agent has the combo to the home and no other bone heads can show the home and leave the A/C on...

I may change the combo's as soon as the inspection period expires. I drove by one of my pendings the other day a truck was in the driveway. (New owner/investor or agent?)

Received word earlier today from the title company that the lender for the buyer did their normal search, can't think of what its called at the moment, that has to do with scrubbing the names involved in the transaction with known terrorists. Come to find out the rep of Citi which has the POA to sign for Citi pinged when the search was done so now the closing is postponed yet again this time until the rep for Citi signs an affidavit that he has never lived in Missouri, 4 different cities is what I am told. And I thought this was going to be a slam dunk deal! Whoa was I dreaming! Never saw this coming nor did I ever think it would be an issue!

Anyone else have this happen???

No, but I did have a closing where the Buyer wired his funds and it never arrived, even though his bank assured us that it was sent, after 2 days of tracking it down, come to find out that due to the fact that his name pinged the data base, the government confiscated the funds.

Took a week to clear that fun one up!

i always have people show the house after pending, so i started taking the ekey boxes off also, Then they call me and ask for the combo and i let them know it has been pending for a week.. hmmm they always act so surprised...

The agents HAVE to take some responsibilities for their buyers. I had one buyer that had purchased a fixer upper to rehab and then rent. He asked me if the seller would allow him to go in and start cleaning up and demolishing. I knew the answer but I called the listing agent and asked. Of course, the answer was 'No'. I told my buyer that the seller wouldn't allow him to do any demolition until after settlement. The buyer then asked if I could give him the lockbox code so he could go in and take measurements.
I said No...the nonly key he could have is any that the seller gives him. I told him that I would make arrangements for us to go in and he can then take his measurements.

I got a call last Sunday night from a lady selling Girl Scout cookies door to door. She went by one of my REOs that was very close to closing and there were people living in the home with a dog in the garage! She saw my sale sign out front (with Bank Owned on it) and called me. She also said the neighbors said the people had moved in a week ago.

I raced over to my listing and sure enough my sign was there, my lock box was on the front door (electronic MLS box)and the keys were in the box. I went to my office to double check escrow hadn't forgot to call and advise we had closed. Nope, set to close the next day.

These fine buyers had moved into my REO listing almost a week before closing. When I blasted the Selling Agent she said "oops, I didn't know they did that." Evidently they found a door open in the back and just moved on in.

I almost called the police and reported a break in. What a bunch of idiots!

There was a HUD house in my area where the pending new owner started rehab before the closing. HUD discovered it, cancelled the sale, put the house back on the market, and the NEXT buyer inherited about $1,000 worth of new sheetrock and fixtures. The thing that tipped off HUD to the early occupancy was the fire in the garage that burned it down. The guy doing the rehab started the fire accidentally.

I heard of another foreclosure sale where the pending buyers moved in, had a huge water leak, decided they didn't want the house after all, and moved back out, cancelling their purchase...house greatly diminished in value.

And one of my own personal listings, the buyer moved in and was very nicely set up when the sellers showed up to take care of the lawn, there they were!!! Sellers thought they smelled a rat when no one would confess to allowing the early occupancy...and I suspect they were right, but it wasn't me!! That one fortunately closed with the new buyer, and no damage, but the relationship with the seller (an investor) was probably tarnished beyond repair.

An agent that "used to" work for our company knew of a vacant relo house that was quite stylish, vacant, sellers already gone, listed by another office in our city. She decided that it would be a beautiful setting for her friends who were getting married. The wedding happened, the neighbors called their former neighbor and good friend and the cat was out of the bag! She's still in RE, but not doing very well.
Now that's guts.